Ecology of Active Rock Glaciers and Surrounding Landforms: Climate, Soil, Plants and Arthropods
bs_bs_banner Ecology of active rock glaciers and surrounding landforms: climate, soil, plants and arthropods DUCCIO TAMPUCCI, MAURO GOBBI, GIUSEPPE MARANO, PATRIZIA BORACCHI, GIACOMO BOFFA, FRANCESCO BALLARIN, PAOLO PANTINI, ROBERTO SEPPI, CHIARA COMPOSTELLA AND MARCO CACCIANIGA Tampucci, D., Gobbi, M., Marano, G., Boracchi, P., Boffa, G., Ballarin, F., Pantini, P., Seppi, R., Compostella, C. & Caccianiga, M. 2017 (April): Ecology of active rock glaciers and surrounding landforms: climate, soil, plants and arthropods. Boreas, Vol. 46, pp. 185–198. 10.1111/bor.12219. ISSN 0300-9483. Active rock glaciers are periglacial landforms consisting of coarse debris with interstitial ice or ice-core. Recent studies showed that such landforms are able to support plant and arthropod life and could act as warm-stage refu- gia for cold-adapted species due to their microclimate features and thermal inertia. However, integrated research comparing active rock glaciers with surrounding landforms to outline their ecological peculiarities is still scarce. We analysed the abiotic (ground surface temperature and humidity, soil physical and chemical parameters) and biotic (plant and arthropod communities) features of two Alpine active rock glaciers with contrasting lithology (silicate and carbonate), and compared them with the surrounding iceless landforms as reference sites (stable slopes and active scree slopes). Our data show remarkable differences between stable slopes and unstable land- forms as a whole, while few differences occur between active scree slopes
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